Clondaw a Banker for punters

Although the six-year-old failed to exploit it when heavily backed on his seasonal reappearance and finishing just sixth of 11 to Old Guard, he shaped as if needing the run and the winner has since come out and won the valuable Greatwood Hurdle in terrific style.

In hindsight it was a promising effort and, after being dropped 1lb, Clondaw Baker duly built on it to open his account over the obstacles when only having to be driven out to beat Slim Pickens by 2 1/2 lengths in a competitive eight-runner handicap at Sandown 11 days ago.

The son of Court Cove is able to race in this off an unchanged mark of 120, and that is going to make Clondaw Banker very hard to beat providing the race doesn’t come too quickly.

The gelding shaped with plenty of promise when placed in two juvenile hurdles in the spring, most notably when a 19 length runnner-up to the now 135-rated Abidjan in a 12-runner contest at Newton Abbot.

That form reads well in the context of this contest, and suggests that Calin Du Brizais should be more than capable of winning races off his current mark of 101.

The four-year-old also comes into the race on the back of a promising third at Fakenham after a 173 day break, and that outing should have sharpened up Calin Du Brizais and put him spot on for this.